Dragons’ Den star Sara Davies is now a well respected and confident Dragon on the hit BBC series, but she admits there's still one element of the show that she finds devastating. The 40-year-old entrepreneur became the youngest ever female investor when she walked into the Den in 2019, replacing outgoing Dragon Jenny Campbell. But in an exclusive chat with OK! about her new solo show that's airing soon, Sara says she still hasn't quite gotten used to shattering dreams in the Den. "When have to say, ‘ don’t think this is commercially viable,’ on Dragons’ Den and they look crestfallen, it’s devastating. o it’s lovely on this show that never have to do that!”.

Sara, who appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2021 with Aljaž Škorjanec, set up Crafter's Companion when she still at university after coming up with an idea for a product that would enable people to make custom-sized enveloped for homemade cards. Her engineer dad helped her create the prototype, and Sara went on to turn it into a multi-million pound business that trades in more than 40 countries around the world.

It was her experience as an inventor that led her to make her new BBC One show, The Big Idea Works, which sees Sara teaming up with a team of engineers to turn the ideas of other inventors into reality. The format was decided after Sara spent three months with a North East TV production company as part of a BBC drive to make more content outside of the London. “My first big break 20 years ago came from identifying a problem and having an idea for a solution — people were making homemade cards but didn’t have the envelopes to fit. My dad was an engineer so was able to take what was in my head and make it into a working prototype. So the lightbulb moment for the show was finding more everyday people who have ideas, and getting lots of engineers in the room to bring them to life.”.

The show was made in the North East, where Sara lives with her husband Simon and their two sons Oliver, 11, and Charlie, eight, and staffed by local talent - and this is something she's incredibly proud of. “Our head cameraman said to me one day, ‘I was a bit late this morning because I dropped the kids off at school. I haven’t been able to do that for months because I’ve been away working — I can’t tell you what it means to be able to do a job in the North East.’ So I’m desperate to make the show such a smash hit that it goes on to be recommissioned. That’s what drives me.”.